Kent County Disaster Mental Health & Human Services Committee
Continuity of Operations
(COOP) Training
May 10, 2011
Lt. Jack Stewart, Kent County Emergency Manager
Deputy Chief Gary Szotko,
Szotko, City of Grand Rapids Emergency Manager
Objectives
Understand COOP, COOP terms, and
benefits of COOP planning
Learn the Continuity Program Management
Cycle
Know the Elements of a viable continuity
capability
Relate how a COOP event may effect you,
your organization, and your family
Definition
COOP includes the activities of
individual departments and agencies
and their sub-compartments to ensure
that their essential functions are
performed.
Scope
COOP activities include:
Plans and procedures to ensure
essential functions are performed
Tests, training and exercises essential
for ensuring a viable COOP capability
Authority
Legal Basis: Executive Order 12656,
“Assignment of Emergency Preparedness
Responsibilities”
• Federal Continuity Directive 1 provides direction
to all Federal executive branch agencies for
developing continuity plans and programs.
Continuity planning facilitates the performance
of essential functions during all-hazard
emergencies or other situations that may disrupt
normal operations.
Authority (cont.)
Applies for Federal Executive Branch
departments/agencies, but COOP concepts:
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Guide the Legislative and Judicial Branches.
Can be adopted for State and local levels.
• Federal Continuity Directive 1 serves as
guidance to State, local, and tribal
governments. All organizations, including
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), can
benefit from continuity planning.
Continuity Guidance for
Non-Federal Organizations
Federal Continuity Directive 1 (FCD 1) does
not require non-Federal organizations to
develop continuity programs.
FEMA recommends strongly that all agencies
develop viable continuity programs.
Purpose of a Continuity Plan
When an organization is faced with an
emergency event, the COOP Plan will:
• Provide for continuation of essential functions.
• Enable a rapid response to any emergency situation.
The COOP Plan documents:
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What will occur in an emergency event
How and how quickly continuity actions must occur
Where continuity operations will occur
Who will participate in continuity operations
Phases of Continuity
Phase I: Readiness and Preparedness
Phase II: Activation and Relocation (0–12 hours)
Phase III: Continuity Operations (12 hours–30 days
or until resumption of normal operations)
Phase IV: Reconstitution (recovery, mitigation, and
termination)
Continuity Program
Management Foundation
An organization’s capability to perform its essential
functions rests on four pillars.
1. Leadership is critical to provide support for
continuity planning and ensure continuity of
essential functions.
2. Staff must be sufficiently trained and crosstrained to perform their duties in a continuity
environment.
3. Facilities must be adequate, separate locations to
ensure execution of essential functions.
4. Communication systems and technology must
be interoperable, robust, and reliable.
Continuity Program
Management Cycle
Four-step process that incorporates:
Planning
Training
Evaluating
Developing Corrective Action Plans
Planning
Developing continuity plans and procedures include:
Appointing the Continuity Program Manager.
Selecting the planning team.
Determining essential functions.
Applying risk management principles to assess
potential hazards.
Identifying resources required for continuity
planning.
Establishing objectives and milestones.
Determining procedures for information gathering
and decision-making.
Training
Developing and conducting test, training, and exercise
is the second step in the Continuity Program
Management Cycle.
Tests confirm procedures, processes, and systems
function as intended
Training ensures personnel know what, how, when
Exercises provide practice and verification of whether the
plan works as intended
Feedback from tests, training, and exercises should be
analyzed and used when revising the continuity plan.
Evaluating
Data from exercises and actual incidents are collected
and analyzed by the evaluation team and become the
basis for after-action reports. Reviewing the
documentation provides an accurate picture of what
happened and identifies areas for improvement.
Lessons learned from continuity plan implementation
Provide valuable information for improving the
continuity process. Think of the continuity plan as a
living document that will change as the continuity
program evolves.
Developing Corrective Action
Plans
A corrective action plan identifies requirements,
assigns responsibilities, and develops corrective
actions to resolve deficiencies and weaknesses in the
continuity plan. Corrective actions are fed into the
continuity plan, then tested and evaluated through
exercises.
Corrective action plans:
Promote continuity plan improvement.
Stimulate preemptive planning
Delineate clear lines of communication and responsibility
Encourage open dialogue to identify weaknesses
Elements of a Continuity Plan
Essential Functions
Orders of Succession
Delegations of Authority
Continuity Facilities
Continuity Communications
Vital Records Management
Human Capital
Test, Train and Exercise
Devolution of Control and Direction
Reconstitution Operations
Essential Functions
The agency’s business functions that must
continue with no or minimal interruption.
Essential functions enable an organization to:
Provide vital services
Exercise civil authority
Maintain the safety of the general public
Sustain the industrial or economic base during an
emergency
Essential Functions
Essential functions is the most important
planning element, providing the basis
for determining resource requirements:
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Staff
Vital Information/Critical systems
Supplies and Service
Facilities
Orders of Succession
(CourierInternational.com, April 13, 2010)
Orders of Succession
Succession to office is critical in the event that the agency’s
leadership is unavailable, debilitated, or incapable of performing
their duties, roles, and responsibilities.
Orders of succession provide for the orderly and predefined
assumption of senior agency offices, during an emergency, in the
event that any officials are unavailable to execute their duties.
Orders of succession are not only a continuity function, but
should be developed to support day-to-day operations.
Orders of succession should be at least “three deep” and include
at least one person whose day-to-day job is physically located at
a different site from the primary facility.
Delegations of Authority
Specify who is authorized to make decisions or act on
behalf of the department/agency head and other key
officials for specific purposes during COOP emergencies.
Delegations of authority ensure:
Continued operations of agencies and their essential
functions
Rapid response to any emergency situation requiring
continuity plan implementation
Alternate Facilities
Locations, other than the primary operating facility,
used to carry out essential functions in a COOP event.
Characteristics:
Located at a safe distance from the impacted primary facility
Secured against worst-case and most-likely scenarios
Operational in 12 hours or less
Provide sufficient space, equipment, supplies and services to
support COOP personnel, including IT and communications
On site or nearby food, lodging, sanitation and security
More than one alternate facility should be identified in
case one is made inoperable.
Continuity Communications
Provide the capability to perform essential functions,
in conjunction with other agencies, until normal
operations can be resumed.
Characteristics:
Support performance of essential functions
Provide capability to communicate within the
organization
Provide connectivity to outside agencies/customers
Ensure access to data, systems and services
Continuity Communications
Continuity communications must be:
Redundant
Available within 12 hours, or sooner,
depending on the mission and requirements
of the organization
Sustainable for up to 30 days or until
normal operations can be resumed
Vital Records Management
Vital records are categorized as:
Emergency operating records required for agency essential
functions during and after an emergency event.
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Plans and directives
Orders of succession
Delegations of authority
References for performing essential functions
Rights and interests records critical to carrying out an
agency’s essential legal and financial functions.
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Personnel records
Social Security records
Payroll records
Retirement records
Insurance records
Contract Records
Vital Records Management
A continuity plan manages the identification,
protection, and ready availability of electronic
and hardcopy documents, references, and
records to support essential functions during a
COOP event.
Human Capital
The sum of talent, energy, knowledge, and enthusiasm
that people invest in their work.
During continuity activation, agencies must perform
essential functions with reduced staffing from a variety
of work locations. Personnel need to be adequately
trained and cross-trained to enable the performance of
all essential functions.
Human Capital
Plans for human capital in COOP
events should include:
Cross-training of the right staff to
essential function duties
All staff have clear understanding of
what to do
Protocols for identifying and assisting
staff with special needs
Test, Train and Exercise
Testing, training and exercising promotes consistency
and uniformity of preparedness activities, and
measures an agency’s capacity to support the
continued execution of its essential functions
throughout an emergency event.
Provides training in areas appropriate to preparedness
Provides opportunities to acquire and apply the skills
and knowledge needed for continuity operations
Builds team unity
Builds lessons learned
Devolution of Control and
Direction
The capability to transfer authority and
responsibility from an agency’s primary operating staff
and facilities to other employees and facilities.
A devolution plan is an extension of an agency’s
concept of operations in the continuity plan. The
devolution plan ensures continuity capability if:
Continuity personnel are unable to perform the
continuity mission.
The continuity facility is unavailable.
Reconstitution Operations
The process by which replacement personnel resume
normal agency operations from the original or
replacement primary operating facility.
The reconstitution process involves:
Informing all personnel that the threat no longer exists and
providing instruction for resumption of normal operations
Supervising an orderly return to the normal operating facility
or movement to another operating facility
Reporting status of relocation to agency partners/customers
Conducting an after-action review
Continuity Support Functions
Program plans and procedures
Risk management
Budgeting and acquisition of resources
Operational phases and
implementation
Program Plans and Procedures
A “pre-planning plan” outlines how the plan
will be developed and on what timeframe
Pre-planning helps develop the continuity
plan in an orderly manner, on time, and
within budget.
Ultimately, the continuity plan must address
all of the elements of a viable continuity
program.
Risk Management
The process used to identify, weigh, control, and
minimize the impact of potential hazards, providing
insight into vulnerabilities from each hazard identified.
Risk management involves assessment and
understanding of:
The consequences of not protecting assets or not
performing essential functions
The threat environment as it relates to specific areas
of concern
The level of vulnerability to relevant threats
Budgeting and Acquisition of
Resources
To support the people, communications, facilities,
infrastructure, and transportation requirements for a
viable continuity program, agencies must allocate
funding to:
Acquire the resources
Use the resources
Implement the plan
Budgeting and acquiring required resources will
ensure your agency has what it needs to continue
essential functions before, during, and after an
emergency event.
Family Support Planning
An organization’s ability to respond in an emergency event
depends on the personal readiness of its employees. Individual
and family preparedness is important for continuity planning.
All employees should develop:
A family support plan
A family “go kit”
All agencies should provide:
An emergency information call-in number
An office “go kit” with an employee contact list
A communication plan for keeping employees informed
Conclusion
The COOP program provides the capability
to continue essential government services
through any emergency
Viable COOP programs include
comprehensive plans, tests, training and
exercises to ensure desired capabilities are
achieved and maintained
COOP emergencies can disrupt all
organizations for a time and can threaten
our well-being and that of our families
Questions
Who questions much,
shall learn much,
and retain much.
Francis Bacon